System for processing cannabis crop materials

- Pearson Incorporated

A system for grinding material in a material flow through the system may include a feed hopper having an interior for receiving material to be processed, a feed apparatus configured to receive material of the material flow from the feed hopper and control a feed rate of the material moving through the system, a roller mill apparatus configured to grind material of the material flow passing through the roller mill apparatus, and a classifier apparatus configured to remove portions of the material from the material flow.

Skip to: Description  ·  Claims  ·  References Cited  · Patent History  ·  Patent History
Description
REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/749,755, filed Oct. 24, 2018, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND Field

The present disclosure relates to crop processing systems and more particularly pertains to a new system for processing cannabis crop materials for grinding relatively unprocessed crop materials that may include leaves, stems, and buds, such as harvested cannabis materials.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure relates to a system for grinding material in a material flow through the system, and which may include a feed hopper having an interior for receiving material to be processed, a feed apparatus configured to receive material of the material flow from the feed hopper and control a feed rate of the material moving through the system, a roller mill apparatus configured to grind material of the material flow passing through the roller mill apparatus, and a classifier apparatus configured to remove portions of the material from the material flow.

There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, some of the more important elements of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional elements of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.

In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment or implementation in greater detail, it is to be understood that the scope of the disclosure is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The disclosure is capable of other embodiments and implementations and is thus capable of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present disclosure. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

The advantages of the various embodiments of the present disclosure, along with the various features of novelty that characterize the disclosure, are disclosed in the following descriptive matter and accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The disclosure will be better understood and when consideration is given to the drawings and the detailed description which follows. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a new system for processing cannabis crop materials according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of the system taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 1, according to an illustrative embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic side sectional view of a portion of the system including the feed apparatus, according to an illustrative embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic side view of selected elements of the feed apparatus of the system, according to an illustrative embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view of the selected elements shown in FIG. 5, according to an illustrative embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a schematic top view of the feed hopper and feed apparatus shown through the feed opening of the feed hopper, according to an illustrative embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a schematic perspective sectional view of a portion of the system taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 1 with elements removed to reveal detail, according to an illustrative embodiment.

 DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to FIGS. 1 through 7 thereof, a new system for processing cannabis crop materials embodying the principles and concepts of the disclosed subject matter will be described.

The applicants have recognized that the harvest of some crops, such as cannabis, can include several different parts of the cannabis plants including leaves, buds stalks, stems, etc., not all of which are desirable and useful in certain processes. Thus, there may be an advantage to separate constitute plant parts having characteristics that are more significant to those processes from other parts lacking those characteristics. For example, parts of the plant containing higher levels of a particular or desired extract may be more desirable than plant parts that have lesser levels or substantially no level of the extract, if the outcome of the process is to produce that extract. One example of a desired extract from cannabis plant material is cannabidiol (CBD).

The applicants have recognized that harvesting techniques that chop or grind the entirety of the plant into smaller pieces for further processing tend to dilute the constituent parts of the plant material that have higher levels of the extract or substance sought from the processing, with the constituent parts of the plant material that have lesser or no level of the desired extract. More specifically, in the case of CBD oil extraction from cannabis plant material, chopping or grinding the whole plant creates a mixture of the plant buds which typically have a relatively higher CBD content with the stems and stalks of the plant material which typically have little if any CBD content. Thus, chopping the plant material into a mixture of the buds and the stems and stalks can greatly reduce the processing efficiency of the plant material for an extract such as CBD because the chopped mixture has a significant content of plant parts which yield little or no CBD.

As a result, the applicants have recognized that while grinding whole plants or large portions of the plants both having and not having significant content of the desired extract may be performed, further processing of the ground plant materials in order to separate those parts of the plant material having significant levels of the desired extract from those parts of the plant material having lesser or insignificant levels of the desired extract is a highly preferable step in the overall processing of the plant material to obtain the extract.

Such processing may include disassociating at least some constituent parts of the plant material from other constituent parts of the plant material by, for example, separating or sorting at least some constituent parts of the plant material from other constituent parts so that constituent parts with greater concentration or availability of the desired substance may receive further processing such as techniques for obtaining the desired extract. In the case of processing cannabis plant material to obtain CBD, this may include separating ground buds of the plant material from ground stalks and stems of the plant material.

The applicants of also recognize that grinding the constituent parts of the plant material may cause the surface area of the pieces of plant stems and plant stalks to increase in size while causing the surface area of the pieces of plant buds and plant flowers to decrease in size. The differential in size of the surface area of these plant material pieces facilitates the separation of the material using, for example, an apparatus which utilizes a screen with suitably-sized holes and a paddle mechanisms used to move the ground plant material across the screen.

The applicants have developed a system for processing these elements that may perform grinding the harvested plants and separating the useful parts of the plants from the parts that are not useful. Thus, in one aspect, the disclosure relates to a system 10 for grinding material in a material flow moving through the system, and may also perform other processing upon the material of the material flow.

In greater detail, the system 10 may include a feed hopper 12 having an interior 14 for receiving material to be processed by the system. The feed hopper 12 may have a feed opening 16 which is in communication with the interior 14 and through which material is received into the interior as an initial part or point of the material flow. The feed opening 16 may be located at an upper end 18 of the feed hopper. The feed hopper 12 may also have a dispensing opening 20 through which material located in the hopper interior 14 is dispensed from or otherwise exits the interior. The dispensing opening 20 may be located at a lower end 19 of the feed hopper. The feed hopper may have a longitudinal axis 22 extending between the upper 18 and lower 19 ends, and in some embodiments the axis 22 may be substantially vertically oriented such that the influence of gravity on the material assists movement of the material flow in a downward direction from the feed opening 16 to the dispensing opening 20.

The feed hopper 12 may have a perimeter wall 24 which extends between the upper feed opening 16 and the lower dispensing opening 20. Illustratively, the perimeter wall 24 may include a pair of opposite major wall portions 26, 27 and a pair of opposite minor wall portions 28, 29 with the major wall portions being relatively wider than the minor wall portions. The perimeter wall 24 may define a width of the hopper interior 14 which may be measured in a direction oriented substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis 22 of the hopper and between the major wall portions 26, 27. The width of the hopper interior may taper narrower from the upper end 18 toward the lower end 19 to assist in the gathering of the material of the material flow. Optionally, structure may be included to facilitate movement of the material in the hopper in a downward direction by discouraging bridging of the material between the sides of the hopper. For example, a vibration structure may be act on the feed hopper to vibrate walls of the feed hopper to facilitate material movement in the hopper. As a further option, structure may be included to lower the temperature of the material prior to further processing. For example, a gas such as nitrogen may be injected into the hopper interior 14 to contact and lower the temperature of the material.

The system 10 may also include a feed apparatus 30 which is configured to receive the material of the material flow from the feed hopper 12 and may facilitate control of a feed rate of the material in the material flow through the system. The feed apparatus 30 may include a feed input opening 32 and a feed output opening 34, with the feed input opening being in communication with the dispensing opening 20 of the feed hopper which may permit the material in the hopper interior 14 to flow under the influence of gravity out of the hopper and into the initial stages of the feed apparatus. The feed apparatus may include a feed apparatus housing 36 which defines a feed housing interior 38 as well as the input opening 32 and the output opening 34. Illustratively, the feed input opening 32 may be substantially vertically aligned above the feed output opening 34 to facilitate generally vertical movement of the material in the material flow through the feed apparatus under the influence of gravity.

The feed apparatus 30 may also include a feed rotor 40 which is positioned in the feed housing interior 38 and rotates to move material through the interior 38 at a controlled rate. The feed rotor 40 may include a rotating shaft 42 which is rotatably mounted on the feed apparatus housing 36 at a location generally between the input 32 and output 34 openings. A plurality of vanes 44, 45 may extend outwardly from the rotating shaft 42 to rotate with the shaft with respect to the feed apparatus housing. Illustratively, the vanes may be substantially equally circumferentially spaced on the shaft 42. At least one of the vanes may be furcated into a plurality of tines 46, 47 and each of the tines of a vane may be spaced from at least one adjacent time of the vane such that the tines alternate with spaces on the vane. In some illustrative embodiments, the plurality of vanes may include approximately 10 vanes to approximately 15 vanes on the rotor 40, and the plurality of tines may include approximately 5 tines to approximately 10 tines, although other suitable vane and tine configurations may be utilized based upon, for example, the size of the rotor. Advantageously, the vanes and tines of the rotor increase the ability of the rotor to grab and pull material from the hopper.

The feed apparatus may also include a feed motor 48 mounted on the feed apparatus housing and connected to the rotating shaft 42 in a manner that permits the feed motor to rotate the rotating shaft 42 with respect to the housing. Suitable controls for controlling the speed of the feed motor, as well as suitable sensors for detecting the presence and rate of movement of the material through the feed apparatus may also be utilized.

A deflection wall 50 may be positioned below the feed rotor 40 and may extend from one wall 52 of the feed apparatus housing 36 toward an opposite wall 53 of the housing 36 with a gap being formed between the free average of the deflection wall and the wall 53 to permit passage of the material through the gap. The deflection wall 50 may be curved to extend about some of the lowermost vanes on the rotor. In some embodiments, a magnetic structure or magnet 54 may be positioned in the feed housing interior 38 in a location suitably close to the material and the material flow to pick up metallic debris contained within the material flow. The magnet may be located, for example, below the gap formed by the wall 50

The system 10 may also include a roller mill apparatus 60 which is configured to receive material from the feed apparatus 30 and grind the material in the material flow passing through the roller mill apparatus. The mill apparatus 60 may have a roller mill input opening 62 and a roller mill output opening 64. In some embodiments, the roller mill apparatus may be positioned below the feed apparatus to receive material discharged by the feed apparatus from the feed output opening 34, and the roller mill input opening 62 may be in communication with the feed output opening 34 of the feed apparatus.

The roller mill apparatus 60 may include a roller mill frame 66 which may define the roller mill input 62 and output 64 openings which may be substantially vertically aligned with each other to facilitate the substantial vertical movement of the material flow through the roller mill apparatus. The roller mill apparatus may also include a pair of mill rolls 68, 70 which are mounted on the roller mill frame 66 for rotation about substantially parallel rotation axes and may be positioned adjacent to each other in a manner defining a gap 72 between the rolls for passage of the material of the material flow therebetween. In some embodiments, the width of the gap between the pair of mill rolls 68, 70 may be adjustable through movement of one or both of the mill rolls with respect to the mill frame. Further, at least one, and in some embodiments both, of the mill rolls have a plurality of teeth formed thereon which may extend in a longitudinal direction of the mill roll. Illustratively, the plurality of teeth may be oriented substantially parallel to each other and may be parallel to the rotation axis. Illustratively, the teeth may be substantially continuous between the opposite longitudinal ends of one or both of the mill rolls. A mill roll motor 74 may be suitably connected to at least one of the mill rolls to rotate the mill roll, and typically the motor 74 is connected to both mill rolls to rotate both rolls. It should also be recognized that although the illustrative embodiments include a single pair of rolls, additional pairs of rolls may be utilized in a serial arrangement. Also, in addition to the illustrative cylindrical mill rolls, other forms of milling devices may be used, such as, for example, a disk or attrition mill in which material is ground between two disks, at least one of which rotates.

The system 10 may also include a classifier apparatus 80 which is configured to move certain portions of the material from the material flow, and may create a flow of process material for further processing or use, and a flow of waste material to be, for example, discarded as waste. The classifier apparatus 80 may include a classifier housing 82 which defines a classifier housing interior 84. The classifier housing may be elongated with a longitudinal axis 85 which extends between a first end 86 and a second end 87 of the elongated housing. The classifier housing may define a reception opening 88 for receiving material of the material flow passed out of the roller mill apparatus, and the reception opening may be in communication with the roller mill output opening 64 to receive the flow. The classifier housing 82 may also define a first exit opening 90 through which material to be utilized or receive other processing exits the classifier housing, and also defines a second exit opening 92 through which material not to be utilized (e.g., discarded) exits the classifier housing. The first exit opening 90 may be located toward the first end 86 of the housing 82, while the second exit opening 92 may be located toward the second end 87 of the housing. The classifier housing 82 may also include an upper wall 94 in which the reception opening 88 is formed, and a lower wall 95 which has a top surface 96. Further, the classifier housing may have a pair of opposite end walls 98, 99 and a pair of opposite side walls 100, 101 which extend between the end walls as well as the upper 94 and lower 95 walls.

The classifier apparatus 80 may also include a material support 104 which is positioned in the classifier housing interior 84 and may extend between the first exit opening 90 and the second exit opening 92. The material support 104 may have an upper surface 106. The material support may have a first support end 108 which is located proximate to the first exit opening 90 and a second support end 109 which is located proximate to the second exit opening 92. The material support may also extend from one 100 of the opposite side walls to another one 101 of the opposite side walls.

In some embodiments, the material support 104 may include a support plate 110 which may be substantially solid and continuous without openings or holes of any practical significance. The support plate 110 may be located below the reception opening 88 such that material of the material flow entering the housing interior 84 and falling to the support 104 falls upon the support plate. The support plate 110 may be located proximate to the first support end 108 of the support 104 and may extend from the first support and toward the second support end.

The material support 104 may also include at least one support grate 112 having a plurality of holes 114 formed therein through which material of a predetermined size or smaller or a particular character is able to move through. The support grate 112 may be positioned adjacent to the support plate 110 and may extend from the support plate toward the second support end 109 and may further extend the entire distance from the support plate to the second support end. The support grate 112 may be positioned above the lower wall 95 of the classifier housing such that material passing through the holes 114 of the support grate tend to land on the top surface 96 of the lower wall.

The classifier apparatus 80 may also include a scraper assembly 120 for removing material entering the classifier apparatus along the material support 104, and may be configured to contact the material support to move the material along the material support. The scraper assembly 120 may also move material having passed through the material support toward the first exit opening 90 of the classifier housing 82, and may be configured to contact the top surface 96 of the lower wall 95 of the housing to move material resting on the lower wall toward the first exit opening. The scraper assembly 120 may be configured to move material on the material support 104 from a location below the reception opening 88 of the classifier housing toward a location above the second exit opening 92. The scraper assembly may have an upper extent 122 and a lower extent 124, and the upper extent may be positioned over or above the material support and may contact the upper surface 106 of the material support. The lower extent 124 may be positioned over the lower wall 95 of the classifier housing, and may contact the top surface 96 of the lower wall. The material support 104 may be positioned between the upper 122 and lower 124 extents of the scraper assembly.

In some embodiments, the scraper assembly 120 may include at least one scraper 126 which is movable across the material support 104 and may extend across the material support with a length that may be substantially equal to the width of the material support between the first 100 and second 101 side walls of the housing. The scraper 126 may be movable in a direction that is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis 85 of the housing 82, and the scraper may be oriented substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis. The scraper may have a panel with a relatively thin thickness dimension and may be formed of a resiliently flexible material, although materials with other characteristics may also be suitable. In the most preferred embodiments, a plurality of scrapers 126, 128 may be employed to perform the material movement functions.

This scraper assembly may also include a carrier structure 130 which may carry the scraper or scrapers 126, 128 across the material support, and also across the lower wall of the classifier housing. The carrier structure 130 may be located in the classifier housing interior 84. The carrier structure 130 may include at least one chain loop 132 and typically may include a pair of chain loops which are positioned substantially parallel to each other and each may be oriented in a substantially vertical plane oriented substantially perpendicular to the upper surface 106 of the material support. The scrapers may be attached to the chain loops such that each scraper bridges between the chain loops. A scraper motor 136 may be configured to operate the carrier structure, and for example may rotate one or both of the chain loops of the carrier structure.

In use, crop materials may be processed by the system that may be dried to some degree but may be green and may have various moisture levels, and illustratively may have moisture contents from approximately 5 percent to approximately 20 percent, and may have moisture content of approximately 10 percent to approximately 15 percent.

In testing of plant materials processed using aspects of the system 10, it has been observed that the cannabinoid potency obtained may approximately double when moving from extraction from substantially whole plant materials to extraction from plant materials having been processed (e.g., separated out) utilizing elements of the system 10

In plant material separated utilizing the system 10 as compared to the plant material separated manually by hand shucking, no significant difference in the cannabinoid potency has been observed. See TABLE 1 below

TABLE 1 Total Total Total THC CBD Cannabinoid Potency Potency Potency Hand Shucked Test 1 0.505% 9.197% 9.797% Hand Shucked Test 2 0.479% 9.452% 10.025%  System Test 1 0.392% 9.089% 9.567% System Test 2 0.417% 9.376% 9.866%

The lack of any significant variance between the cannabinoid potency in hand separated or shucked plant materials and plant materials processed by the system 10 is believed to demonstrate that there is no significant loss of the trichomes during processing the plant materials utilizing elements of the system 10, and is also believed to demonstrate that processing of plant materials by elements of the system 10 does not raise the temperature of the processed plant material enough to cause decarboxylation of the cannabinoids which can negatively impact effective extraction of the cannabinoids from the plant materials.

Further, processing utilizing elements of the system 10 decreases the particle size of the plant materials which tends to increase the packing density of the processed plant materials, and may facilitate packing of a greater amount of plant materials into a vessel utilized for further processing, such as may be utilized in supercritical CO2 extraction techniques.

It should be appreciated that in the foregoing description and appended claims, that the terms “substantially” and “approximately,” when used to modify another term, mean “for the most part” or “being largely but not wholly or completely that which is specified” by the modified term.

It should also be appreciated from the foregoing description that, except when mutually exclusive, the features of the various embodiments described herein may be combined with features of other embodiments as desired while remaining within the intended scope of the disclosure.

In this document, the terms “a” or “an” are used, as is common in patent documents, to include one or more than one, independent of any other instances or usages of “at least one” or “one or more.” In this document, the term “or” is used to refer to a nonexclusive or, such that “A or B” includes “A but not B,” “B but not A,” and “A and B,” unless otherwise indicated.

With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of the disclosed embodiments and implementations, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art in light of the foregoing disclosure, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by the present disclosure.

Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosed subject matter to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to that fall within the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A system for grinding material in a flow of material moving through the system, the system having a top and a bottom with the flow of material from the top to the bottom, the system comprising:

a feed receiver at the top of the system having an interior for receiving material in the flow of material to be processed;
a feed apparatus configured to receive material in the flow of material from the feed receiver, the feed apparatus being configured to control a feed rate of the flow of material moving out of the receiver and through the system;
a roller mill apparatus configured to grind material of the flow of material received by the roller mill apparatus from the feed apparatus; and
a classifier apparatus receiving ground material of the flow of material from the roller mill apparatus and being configured to separate a portion of the flow of material to create a flow of process material at the bottom of the system for further processing from other portions of the flow of material to create a flow of waste material at the bottom of the system;
wherein the classifier apparatus includes: a classifier housing defining a classifier housing interior and being elongated with a first end and a second end; a material support being positioned in the classifier housing interior and extending between the first and second ends of the classifier housing, at least a portion of the material support comprising a support grate having a plurality of holes formed therein through which material of a predetermined size or smaller is able to move through; and a scraper assembly for moving material entering the classifier apparatus along the material support.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein a direction of material movement in the flow of material through the feed receiver, feed apparatus, and roller mill apparatus is vertical.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the direction of material movement in the flow of material through the classifier apparatus is horizontal.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the feed apparatus includes a feed apparatus housing defining a feed apparatus interior; and

a feed rotor positioned in the feed housing interior and being mounted on the feed housing in a manner permitting rotation of the feed rotor to move material through the feed housing interior, the feed rotor comprising: a rotating shaft rotatably mounted on the feed apparatus housing; and a plurality of vanes extending outwardly from the rotating shaft to rotate with the shaft with respect to the feed apparatus housing.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the feed apparatus additionally comprises a feed motor mounted on the feed apparatus housing and being connected to the rotating shaft in a manner permitting the feed motor to rotate the rotating shaft with respect to the feed apparatus housing to control the material flow from the feed receiver to the roller mill apparatus.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein the feed apparatus includes a deflection wall positioned below the feed rotor to encourage the flow of material over the deflection wall toward a magnetic structure positioned in the feed housing interior configured to pick up metallic debris contained in the material flow.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the roller mill apparatus comprises:

a roller mill frame; and
a pair of mill rolls mounted on the roller mill frame for rotation about substantially parallel rotation axes and being positioned adjacent to each other in a manner defining a gap therebetween for the passage of the particulate material.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the roller mill apparatus is configured such that a width of the gap between the pair of mill rolls is adjustable.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein at least one of the mill rolls has a plurality of teeth, the teeth extending in a longitudinal direction with respect to the mill roll in an orientation parallel to the rotation axis.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the teeth on the mill roll are continuous between opposite longitudinal ends of the mill roll.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the material support includes a support plate being solid and continuous, the support plate being located below a reception opening of the classifier housing and the support grate of the material support.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the scraper assembly is configured to contact the material support to move the material along the material support.

13. A system for grinding material in a flow of material moving through the system, the system having a top and a bottom with the flow of material from the top to the bottom, the system comprising:

a feed receiver at the top of the system having an interior for receiving material in the flow of material to be processed;
a feed apparatus configured to receive material in the flow of material from the feed receiver, the feed apparatus being configured to control a feed rate of the flow of material moving out of the feed receiver and through the system;
a roller mill apparatus configured to grind material of the flow of material received by the roller mill apparatus from the feed apparatus;
a classifier apparatus receiving ground material of the flow of material from the roller mill apparatus and being configured to separate a portion of the flow of material to create a flow of process material at the bottom of the system for further processing from other portions of the flow of material to create a flow of waste material at the bottom of the system;
wherein the feed apparatus includes a feed apparatus housing defining a feed apparatus interior;
a feed rotor positioned in the feed housing interior and being mounted on the feed housing in a manner permitting rotation of the feed rotor to move material through the feed housing interior, the feed rotor comprising: a rotating shaft rotatably mounted on the feed apparatus housing; and a plurality of vanes extending outwardly from the rotating shaft to rotate with the shaft with respect to the feed apparatus housing; and
wherein at least one of the vanes of the feed rotor is furcated into a plurality of tines, each of the tines of one of the vanes being spaced from an adjacent other one of the tines of the one of the vanes.

14. A system for grinding material in a flow of material moving through the system, the system comprising:

a feed hopper having an interior for receiving material in the material flow to be processed;
a feed apparatus configured to receive material in the flow of material from the feed hopper, the feed apparatus being configured to control a feed rate of the flow of material moving through the system;
a roller mill apparatus configured to grind material of the flow of material passing through the roller mill apparatus; and
a classifier apparatus configured to remove portions of the flow of material from other portions of the flow of material;
wherein the classifier apparatus includes: a classifier housing defining a classifier housing interior and being elongated with a first end and a second end; a material support being positioned in the classifier housing interior and extending between the first and second ends of the classifier housing, at least a portion of the material support comprising a support grate having a plurality of holes formed therein through which material of a predetermined size or smaller is able to move through; and a scraper assembly for moving material entering the classifier apparatus along the material support; and
wherein the scraper assembly includes: at least one scraper being movable across the material support; and a carrier structure carrying the at least one scraper across the material support and carrying the at least one scraper across a lower wall of the classifier housing.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the feed receiver comprises a feed hopper which is elongated along a longitudinal axis extending between an upper end and a lower end of the receiver, the longitudinal axis being vertically oriented with a dispensing opening of the feed receiver being located at the lower end such that gravity acting on the material assists movement of the flow of material through the dispensing opening to the feed apparatus.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the feed hopper has a perimeter wall extending between an upper feed opening and the dispensing opening, the feed hopper having a width measured between opposite locations on the perimeter wall, the width tapering uniformly narrower between the upper feed opening and the dispensing opening.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein the material support includes a support plate being solid and continuous, the support plate being located below a reception opening of the classifier housing and the support grate of the material support.

18. The system of claim 14 wherein the scraper assembly is configured to contact the material support to move the material along the material support.

19. The system of claim 14 wherein a direction of material movement in the flow of material through the feed hopper, feed apparatus, and roller mill apparatus is vertical; and

wherein the direction of material movement in the flow of material through the classifier apparatus is horizontal.

20. The system of claim 14 wherein the roller mill apparatus comprises:

a roller mill frame; and
a pair of mill rolls mounted on the roller mill frame for rotation about substantially parallel rotation axes and being positioned adjacent to each other in a manner defining a gap therebetween for the passage of the particulate material.
Referenced Cited
U.S. Patent Documents
254974 March 1882 Hollingsworth
288743 November 1883 Swingle
417836 December 1889 Ponsar
454950 June 1891 Sewell
473957 May 1892 Pollock
621744 March 1899 Bowden
664836 January 1901 Davidson
738166 September 1903 Davidson
744567 November 1903 Krusemark
1466508 August 1923 Lake
1568267 January 1926 Carter
1611675 December 1926 Prestemon
1678134 July 1928 Cromer
2053038 September 1936 MacKenzie
2118010 May 1938 Hazle, Jr.
2608973 September 1952 Coons
2614597 October 1952 Magnus
3226041 December 1965 Graumann
3304355 February 1967 Pobst, Jr.
3321079 May 1967 Sackett, Sr.
3362649 January 1968 Odden
3491952 January 1970 Krolopp
3683559 August 1972 Kalwaites
3752315 August 1973 Hubach
3866842 February 1975 Linzberger
4083501 April 11, 1978 Ryan
4165280 August 21, 1979 Holley
4177900 December 11, 1979 Kluthe
4202629 May 13, 1980 Jakobs
4213855 July 22, 1980 Vonbennigsen-Mackiewicz
4361476 November 30, 1982 Brewer
4387552 June 14, 1983 Lancaster
4442876 April 17, 1984 Koike
4468265 August 28, 1984 MacLaughlin
4572216 February 25, 1986 Josuttis
4645484 February 24, 1987 Niske
4786001 November 22, 1988 Ephraim
4862570 September 5, 1989 Bald
4941290 July 17, 1990 Holyoke
4986997 January 22, 1991 Posner
5042728 August 27, 1991 Haque
5044115 September 3, 1991 Richardson
5052088 October 1, 1991 Hagewood
5100062 March 31, 1992 Baltensperger
5115984 May 26, 1992 Satake
5192028 March 9, 1993 Curran
5201470 April 13, 1993 Baltensperger
5251144 October 5, 1993 Ramamurthi
5315789 May 31, 1994 Takashi
5366167 November 22, 1994 McCarthy
5392998 February 28, 1995 Suessegger
5419107 May 30, 1995 Shelbourne
5501629 March 26, 1996 Kawana
5523701 June 4, 1996 Smith
5533371 July 9, 1996 Frischknecht
5547136 August 20, 1996 Steffens
5597125 January 28, 1997 Bouldin
5622323 April 22, 1997 Krueger
5632135 May 27, 1997 Baker, IV
5717209 February 10, 1998 Bigman
5846129 December 8, 1998 Dragt
6016626 January 25, 2000 Auer
6176683 January 23, 2001 Yang
6199777 March 13, 2001 Satake
6258308 July 10, 2001 Brady
6293478 September 25, 2001 Livrieri
6365416 April 2, 2002 Elsohly
6372281 April 16, 2002 Metzger
6375104 April 23, 2002 Hruska
6443376 September 3, 2002 Huang
6517016 February 11, 2003 Feige
6589598 July 8, 2003 Ochiai
6634577 October 21, 2003 Horigane
6730519 May 4, 2004 Elsohly
6886763 May 3, 2005 Lepage
6990431 January 24, 2006 Beaudoin
7006953 February 28, 2006 Takemura
7032850 April 25, 2006 Fukui
70835344 August 2006 Goransson
7170251 January 30, 2007 Huang
7183735 February 27, 2007 Heinemann
7198215 April 3, 2007 Everson
7206719 April 17, 2007 Lindsay
7381017 June 3, 2008 Wang
7419694 September 2, 2008 Korolchuk
7425344 September 16, 2008 Korolchuk
7540697 June 2, 2009 Wang
7568641 August 4, 2009 Dreimann
7592468 September 22, 2009 Goodwin
7756678 July 13, 2010 Bonissone
7757980 July 20, 2010 Oare
7832241 November 16, 2010 Mantovan
8144005 March 27, 2012 Hu
8162243 April 24, 2012 Wenthe
8206061 June 26, 2012 Hansen
8211341 July 3, 2012 Lustiger
8292207 October 23, 2012 Fard
8343553 January 1, 2013 Hospodor
8485052 July 16, 2013 Gebhart
8690087 April 8, 2014 Roll
8734143 May 27, 2014 Morris
8842267 September 23, 2014 Heine
9066910 June 30, 2015 Rosenblatt
9104650 August 11, 2015 Hosek
9510507 December 6, 2016 Abbott
9592457 March 14, 2017 Dabao
9649349 May 16, 2017 Tucker
9651467 May 16, 2017 Deguchi
9694040 July 4, 2017 Scialdone
9723786 August 8, 2017 Brummelhuis
9744200 August 29, 2017 Tucker
9795338 October 24, 2017 Kang
9797822 October 24, 2017 Little, III
9801956 October 31, 2017 Kularatne
9804092 October 31, 2017 Zeng
9808538 November 7, 2017 Kularatne
9919315 March 20, 2018 Pearson
9959514 May 1, 2018 Phan
9974821 May 22, 2018 Kennedy
10143706 December 4, 2018 Kotra
10322487 June 18, 2019 Hansen
10399082 September 3, 2019 Pearson
20020022899 February 21, 2002 Dehy
20020168911 November 14, 2002 Tonner
20030117426 June 26, 2003 Schmidt
20040096585 May 20, 2004 Bonnebat
20060073258 April 6, 2006 Korolchuk
20060231021 October 19, 2006 Friske
20070170291 July 26, 2007 Naganawa
20070209347 September 13, 2007 Malmros
20070294121 December 20, 2007 Galt
20080063330 March 13, 2008 Orlowski
20080167483 July 10, 2008 Whittle
20080191075 August 14, 2008 Bon
20080203956 August 28, 2008 Cohen
20080275660 November 6, 2008 Bhateja
20090093191 April 9, 2009 Glide
20090295561 December 3, 2009 Hu
20100030926 February 4, 2010 Boussy
20100059609 March 11, 2010 Teeter
20100127217 May 27, 2010 Lightowlers
20110067374 March 24, 2011 James
20110113740 May 19, 2011 Desmarais
20110276828 November 10, 2011 Tamaki
20120005107 January 5, 2012 Lowden
20120046352 February 23, 2012 Hospodor
20120244266 September 27, 2012 Ku
20130087644 April 11, 2013 Ephraim
20130271110 October 17, 2013 Yamanaka
20130301375 November 14, 2013 Stephan
20140014748 January 16, 2014 Zeeck
20140048459 February 20, 2014 Hafford
20140145018 May 29, 2014 Niklewski
20140245799 September 4, 2014 Kim
20140299688 October 9, 2014 Carbonini
20150027096 January 29, 2015 Black
20150129698 May 14, 2015 Olson
20150156967 June 11, 2015 Steenland
20150211971 July 30, 2015 Little, III
20150300800 October 22, 2015 Van Valkenburgh
20150324759 November 12, 2015 Bansal
20150346717 December 3, 2015 Hosek
20160100524 April 14, 2016 Young
20160120123 May 5, 2016 Brummelhuis
20160245588 August 25, 2016 Baugh
20160374386 December 29, 2016 Desmarais
20170027105 February 2, 2017 Wenger
20170080466 March 23, 2017 Godwin
20170131194 May 11, 2017 Little, III
20170333257 November 23, 2017 Schmitz
20170333809 November 23, 2017 Lopa
20180035610 February 8, 2018 Wieker
20180126578 May 10, 2018 Raichart
20180213722 August 2, 2018 Pratt
20190124840 May 2, 2019 Bates
20190276420 September 12, 2019 Cho
Foreign Patent Documents
2665876 November 2010 CA
3012914 October 2018 CA
101401506 June 2012 CN
202873360 April 2013 CN
103430692 December 2013 CN
103497823 January 2014 CN
104194920 December 2014 CN
204907202 December 2015 CN
205030140 February 2016 CN
105594370 May 2016 CN
108064545 May 2018 CN
108076804 May 2018 CN
207385669 May 2018 CN
108624394 October 2018 CN
108718676 November 2018 CN
108811715 November 2018 CN
108633454 December 2018 CN
109363026 February 2019 CN
2737115 March 1979 DE
2807634 August 1979 DE
19627137 January 1998 DE
102005055373 May 2007 DE
0383410 August 1990 EP
1195668 September 2002 EP
1757181 February 2007 EP
2556740 February 2013 EP
2885009 November 2006 FR
7360922 August 1955 GB
973177 October 1964 GB
2010201440 September 2010 JP
2119737 October 1998 RU
9419970 September 1994 WO
2005119089 December 2005 WO
2007066847 June 2007 WO
2007133098 November 2007 WO
2009128711 October 2009 WO
2010082322 July 2010 WO
2010130035 November 2010 WO
2013160576 October 2013 WO
2017051398 March 2017 WO
2018014135 January 2018 WO
2019041017 March 2019 WO
2019119153 June 2019 WO
2019157783 August 2019 WO
Other references
  • Charles Stark and Julie Kalivoda, “Evaluating Particle Size of Feedstuffs”, publication, Nov. 2016, 4 pages, K-State Research and Extension, Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Services, Manhattan, Kansas.
Patent History
Patent number: 10751722
Type: Grant
Filed: Oct 16, 2019
Date of Patent: Aug 25, 2020
Assignee: Pearson Incorporated (Sioux Falls, SD)
Inventors: Alex Pearson (Sioux Falls, SD), Roy Olson (Sioux Falls, SD), Casey Van Middendorp (Harrisburg, SD), Joshua Tracy (Harrisburg, SD)
Primary Examiner: Faye Francis
Application Number: 16/654,919
Classifications
Current U.S. Class: Separator Interposed Between Plural Comminuting Zones (241/78)
International Classification: B02C 4/00 (20060101); B02C 4/02 (20060101); B02C 4/28 (20060101); B02C 4/42 (20060101); A24B 1/04 (20060101); A24C 5/39 (20060101); A24C 5/42 (20060101); B02C 23/10 (20060101); B02C 23/16 (20060101);